Just played through this excellent scenario and thought I'd share my experience. Some disclaimers - this is just my 2nd game of Civ V, though I've been playing "Civ" since Civ II was out
The game was set for the median difficulty level (no AI advantages).
Maybe others have mentioned this, but Civ V leans toward a tactical game, far less a grand strategy game than prevous titles. Or, you could say that tactical warfare is its strength. This scenario plays to the game's strengths. Building construction, happiness, science, culture, settlers, and workers are all turned off or unavailable. It is a purely military scenario.
There are only 5 types of units with one UU for each nation:
Cannon, frigates, pikemen, musketmen, and lancers.
Royalist Cavaliers and Parliament Ironsides replace Lancers.
Confederate Tory and Covanter Highlander replace Musketmen.
The setting is the British Isles only. This scale fits well with the capabilities, movement, and combat characteristics of the units. It just feels right. Cities are quite far apart, I guess an average is 6-7 hexes, though some are closer together. There are roads, but many cities are connected to the road network only by sea.
Cities have all the basic buildings needed, including Harbors in coastal cities to connect to the Capitals (unless blockaded, of course). They have libraries which I promptly sold on the first turn.
The four nationalities: English Parliamentarians, English Royalists, Scots Covanters, and Irish Confederates have approximately equal areas under control, though it seemed to me the Royalists have a tougher strategic position, roughly in the middle of the other 3 opponents. The abilities of each UU is interesting, yet not a game-changer for any one side.
Overall tactics was a learning process. At first I thought musketmen backed up with cannon would be the way to go. However I found that pikemen were just about as effective in melee as the musketmen, and truly deadly against any lancers they ran across. My musketmen often came off second-best in battle with enemy pikemen too. Musketmen were best attacking cities and cannon. So as I played through, the Pikemen often took the front lines in the field, while musketmen and cannon backed them up. When approaching a city, the pikement deployed to the flank and the musketmen prepared to assault with the help of the cannon. Most sieges took 2-3 turns (there were exceptions!). The Ironsides were great (with multiple attacks plus attack and move) at mopping up wounded enemies or even a casualty-heavy assault, but could be retreated out of harm. Still, I didn't use them as much as I probably should have. The frigates turned out to be indespensible in capturing coastal Cities as well as slowing down enemy troop movements along coasts. 2 frigates bombarding a City could slowly wear down its defenses if unnocupied. Three or more could do the job in just a few turns leaving it open to easy capture when the infantry arrived. I imagined the land units as regiments, and each frigate as a squadron of 3-5 ships.
So on to the English Civil War (turns are approximate).
The parlimentarians start out fragmented. Because of royalist control of some key roads, there are cities such as Manchester outside the trade network. I'm not sure if this meant a lot to the townsfolk, but from a military perspective it meant those cities were going to be on their own if attacked. It also made the major threat obvious - the Royalists. they had to be defeated and Parliament brought into control of the majority of England proper, before any other conquests could be considered. We had a single city in Ireland, Cork. Likewise, Royalist territory was fragmented, but the towns of Oxford, the Royalist capital, and Portsmouth stuck into our territory and would impede operations tremendously. They would have to be the very first objectives.
Turns 1-10: Started building musketmen (as I mentioned). Advanced about 1/2 of army toward Portsmouth, and the other half deployed defensively around Northampton. I figured (correctly) that Northampton would be the focus of the first Royalist attack. A pikeman, musketman, Ironsides, and cannon (as well as General Cromwell himself) defended the city and surrounding countryside by battle and maneuver, being sure to retreat when badly wounded. One thing I did notice was the awefully slow production in the cities. I was afraid that the loss of even a single regiment might spell strategic defeat. So every unit was treated with care. Nevertheless, we almost lost the cannon there as well as the city! It was a close-run thing. In contrast, the attack on portsmouth by a similar force supported by frigates was successful, it being lightly defended. Once Portsmouth was captured, the army recovered casualties, and then advanced in a pincer on Oxford from south and east. The Royalist army having exhausted itself against Northampton, this was accomplished more easily than might be thought. After the capture of Oxford the "New Model Army" rested and trained, earning several promotions. While capturing Oxford, Cork was lost to the Confederates. In retrospect, sending a couple of frigates there after Portsmouth was captured might have staved this off indefinately.
Turns 11-30. With the centre of England firmly in Parlimentarian hands, and some more regiments starting to fill out, we launched a two-prong attack. One army advanced into Wales, and the other up the east coast of england. Both offensives were slow, the cannon proving wonderful in pairs or in conjunction with a couple of frigates to pound stubborn defenders. While we were grinding forward, the Royalists captured Inverness from the Scots, and the Confederates ejected the Royalists and Covanters from Irish soil. I had a feeling that when I finally got to Ireland, it would be extremely difficult against a large and experienced army. As we wrapped up the conquest of Wales, I sent a small force to capture Cornwall with naval support. All conquered Cities were garrisoned. I don't really know if garrisons helped but gave me peace of mind that supply lines were secure.
Turns 31-50: We advanced strongly into Scotland on east and west coasts simultaneously. With the Royalists in the north and us in the South, the Covanters were quickly wiped out. My regiments continued to advance and soon captured the holdout Royalist towns in northern Scotland. Parlimentarian forces were then in complete control of England, Wales, and Scotland! We launched a premature invation of Ireland, as the forces were just sitting idly by around Wales and Cornwall. We landed the army consisting of four regiments, 2 batteries of cannon, and two frigates north and sound of Wessex. This turned out to be a very bad location for an attack. Easy to attack from 3 directions, but very hard to attack FROM. Before Wessex was captured the Irish were pouring reinforcements into the area from Dublin, Cork, and Kilkenney, their capital. Wessex was captured but two regiments were lost in the process.
Turns 50-70: All regiments after completing the conquest of Scotland were pulled from scotland and invaded northern Ireland around Carrickfergus. This however took time and meanwhile the war of attrition around Wessex continued. I continued to transport regiments there as they were built in my home cities. We captured, then lost, then recaptured Dublin. Cork was captured by pikmen with naval support. An attack on Kilkenny was stalemated for several turns, as I fed units into the narrow valley as fast as I could (which was not very fast). I could see more Confederate regiments reinforcing the forests around their capital, which was itself garrisoned with a cannon that must have received every promotion in the book! Finally after nearly encircling it, we captured Kilkenny, though by then the entire east coast of Ireland was under Parliamentarian control.
Turns 71-81: Mopping up the last remaining Confederate towns was accomplished simply, with the use of massively superior force including the support of frigates. Galway was captured on turn 81.
Fun!
